This photo was taken in 2001 after my initial breast implant removal surgery.

I had breast augmentation with silicone breast implants in 1978.

Around 1990, I started having a lot of
mysterious health problems: rashes, numb, heavy feeling arms, tingling hands, sharp pains in the arches of my feet, difficulty thinking clearly, pains in my chest, aching joints, extreme lower back pain, difficulty sleeping and on and on.

Also around this time I started having mammograms, because it is hard to do self exams when you have implants. At the time, I didn't realize that mammograms could  cause the implants to rupture.

At this point in time, I made no connection with the implants having anything to do with my weird medical problems. I got no real answers or diagnosis from the medical profession other than fibromyalgia, which at the time was
an "iffy" grey area type diagnosis to begin with.

Over the next few years, I would ask my doctors if the implants were okay, and the answer was
always, oh they're fine, nothing to worry about.

They were very wrong.

In 2000, I got my first computer ........ I will never forget the
"lighbulb moment" when i googled "breast implants" and came upon a support group for women harmed by them. As I read the list of 30 or so symptoms, tears started flowing, as I realized I had close to 25 of them.

Well, long story short, I had my breast implants removed in 2001
....... that was when the horrors began. I honestly thought I was
dying. The next year or so I basically spent in bed. My chest was
deformed, but much worse than that i was getting sicker and sicker as the silicone released from the removal surgery (which was not done in the proper "en bloc" procedure, despite the fact that i specifically requested it) spread throughout my body.

I sent my breast implants (or what was left of them -- a gooey brown and black mess to a doctor
who specialises in implant analysis).

His report states that they were in a condition of rupture that predated the removal in excess of 10 years!

In 2002, I went back for a second surgery to try to clean up the mess left behind from the initial implant removal surgery.

The results were not much different.

Finally, in 2003, I had a third surgery performed by two doctors in
tandem, a plastic surgeon and a breast cancer surgeon (I did not have breast cancer) they performed a bi-lateral partial mastectomy. In other words, they opened me up from underneath as well as removing my nipples, scraped my chest wall cavity and removed as much residual silicone as possible. This of course meant that the little breast tissue that was left was now gone as well, they patched me up and sewed my nipples back on.

I was alive!

In 2005, one of my best friends in the world, Jewell, passed on. Please read her story here.

Now, fast forward to 2007.

I hurt.

I hurt all over:  my arms
burn, my back burns, my esophagus burns. I have fibromyalgia,
chronic fatigue, suspected connective tissue disorder, systemic silicone
toxicity, raynauds, g.e.r.d., high blood pressure, anemia, peripheral
neuropathy, hiatus hernia, rashes that travel over my body, racing
heart, chemical sensitivity, difficulty swallowing, oral lesions,
insomnia, night sweats, pains in my chest, neurological, cognitive
problems,  numb heavy arms and legs, and I hurt.

If anyone reading this is thinking of getting breast implants
.......... please, please, think again.

Thank you.